Raising The Baa - Suffolk Sheep Farmers Inducted To Hall Of Fame

By VIC BRADSHAW Daily News-Record

GROTTOES — John Sponaugle’s mantra is that if something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.The United Suffolk Sheep Association recently made it clear to Sponaugle and his wife, Pam, that they’ve done it right.The owners of Sponaugle Suffolks are now members of the USSA Hall of Fame. They were inducted into the hall on Nov. 15 during the North American International Livestock Exposition in Louisville, Ky., and are now among 50 individuals, families or farms enshrined.John, 65, said he was in a camper at the Rockingham County Fair with daughter Laura Begoon when he got the call informing him that the panel in charge of selecting hall of fame members had chosen him and Pam.“I was pretty shocked,” said John, who thinks he and Pam are the only Virginians to have been selected, though he said others are worthy. “I feel very humbled.”Pam, 64, said she and John are “very, very good friends” with the other five other farmers or farm families inducted this year, which made it more special.“I’m very honored,” she said, “that they thought enough of us to want us.”Scott Greiner, a Virginia Tech assistant professor and extension animal scientist who focuses on beef and sheep, said the couple deserves the honor.“I think the Sponaugles have very much been leaders, here in Virginia as well as nationally, and they’ve done a lot to promote and advance the Suffolk breed and the sheep industry in general,” he said. “They’ve been particularly noteworthy for their work with youth.”Meat AnimalsBorn and raised in Highland County, John began his involvement with sheep in the mid-1960s with the purchase of six Suffolk ewe lambs. He stopped while attending James Madison University (then Madison College) but picked back up in 1976, while teaching math and physics at Montevideo High School, buying 10 ewe lambs.John said he had a few beef cattle until five to seven years ago but sold them off because he often works the animals by himself and sheep are easier to tend. Pam has three miniature horses on the farm.Pam, a librarian at Montevideo High who’d grown up on a cattle and pig farm, knew John from the school. But it wasn’t until a friend she was with stopped by John’s house and he walked out toting a baby lamb that the love bug hit.“That kinda ...” she trailed off with a sigh, before resuming, “because I always liked animals.”The couple married in 1979 in the front yard of the farm they bought across the road from Pam’s childhood home, and it’s been the home of Sponaugle Suffolks ever since.John quit teaching after more than a decade in the classroom to devote his time to farming. The Sponaugles also grow turkeys for Cargill Inc.Suffolks, Greiner said, are a meat breed with “average” wool.“Their known for their growth and carcass merit,” he said. “It’s a very popular breed in the United States, one of the most popular nationally and here in Virginia.”John raised Suffolks almost exclusively for years but has transitioned to mostly crossbreeds, with some Hampshires and Suffolks mixed in, because of a shift in market preference.Youth Program LeadersSponaugle Suffolks sells an average of 200 sheep a year, John said, and the farm is nationally known.He estimated that 30 to 40 sheep are sold off the farm for slaughter, and about the same number are sold for slaughter at sales. Some are sold off the farm for breeding.One of his sheep was judged the Reserve Champion Suffolk Ram at the 1992 Midwest Stud Ram Sale. The buyer paid $11,000 for it.“We pride ourselves as trying to be a leader,” John said. “It gets expensive and very demanding on time.“It’s not that many states in the union that we haven’t sold to.”

Pam added that their lambs have been sold into Mexico, and at least one went overseas.The biggest customer base for the sheep business, though, is children buying animals for 4-H and FFA projects. John estimated that 40 to 50 sheep are sold for projects each year.That’s appropriate, as the Sponaugles are known for their work with youth. They helped found the Virginia Junior Suffolk Sheep Breeders in 1988, which morphed into the all-breed Virginia Junior Sheep Breeders Association. The VJSBA is celebrating its 25th year this year.John took over as a leader of the Port Republic 4-H years ago in an emergency situation and remains in that role with Begoon’s help.Meanwhile, Pam uses her artistic talent to make stained-glass Suffolks. They’re sold annually at the livestock expo in Louisville, with the money raised benefiting the United Junior Suffolk Sheep Association, and she’ll be making stained-glass awards for the juniors’ supreme champion ram and ewe this year.“John and Pam convey their passion and interest in sheep and strong love for agriculture and getting other folks involved,” said Greiner, “particularly the youth.”Begoon and her sister, Sarah Ward, were champions at the local and state level as children when they showed sheep. John brags that Laura won both the champion lamb and sheep showmanship competitions at the Rockingham County Fair five years running, the only time that’s been done.John’s also been president of the Virginia Sheep Producers Association multiple times and was on the National Suffolk Sheep Association’s board of directors for eight years, serving as president in 1990.Though he’s aging, John doesn’t appear ready to slow down. He recently traveled to Lebanon, Ind., to pick up 17 ewes, including 15 that had embryos from the best ewes on his farm transferred into them to produce higher-quality offspring.A lamb born at 10 a.m. Thursday brought the sheep head count on the farm to 55, and John said it probably will be 150 to 175 by the end of the year.

Sponaugle Suffolks began in the summer of 1977 with the purchase of 10 Suffolk ewe lambs from Ansel Luxford. Our first stud ram was Luxford 79-N240 and was purchased at the '79 Eastern Stud Ram Sale. John moved his small flock from 5 acres in Port Republic to the current farm outside Grottoes when he and Pam married in 1979. From this point, the flock grew to as many as 150 Suffolk ewes.

Our blood lines were primarily Luxford, Nichols, Buckeye Acres, and George Brothers. Emphasis was placed on structurely correct productive sheep. The flock was very competitive at the national level, selling high quality Suffolks off the farm, at the major sales in the eastern US and at the Midwest Stud Ram Sale. The pinnacle of our success with breeding sheep was the 1992 Midwest Stud Ram Sale where we exhibited the Reserve Grand Champion Suffolk Ram who sold for $11,000.

Over the past decade we have down-sized the frame size of our sheep and are aggressively pursueing the development of our "tweener" sheep. Our goal is to be competitive in the showring with the frame sheep, on the farm with the production sheep, and in the market lamb shows with the wether sheep. Our sheep are available off the farm at the West Virginia Stud Ram Sale, the Virginia Performance Test Sale, and the Virginia Bred Ewe Sale. Visitors are always welcome to visit and help us evaluate our progress.